ACTIONAID Zambia says it would be interesting to know which law investigative agencies are using to interrogate the PF considering that there is no legal framework that compels political parties to disclose their sources of funding.

And ActionAid says it might be justifiable for the PF to feel victimised because law enforcement agencies could not identify irregularities in their individual activities before the change of government.

In an interview, ActionAid country director Nalucha Ziba noted that Zambia currently did not have a legal framework that compelled political parties to disclose their sources of party financing.

“Our understanding is that currently, Zambia does not have a legal framework that compels political parties to disclose their sources of party financing. It is one of the gaps that we have as a country in an effort to curb issues to do with illicit financial flows as well as state capture. Therefore, it is quite interesting that the law enforcement agency would only target one party as opposed to interrogating all the political parties that participated in the last elections if any, to understand their sources of financing. It would be interesting to know which law they are using considering that there is no legal framework that supports or compels political parties to disclose their sources of funding,” Ziba said.

“Therefore, our view and appeal is that there is need to put in place a legal framework that will guide or compel political parties to disclose their sources of financing considering that usually, this has implications when it comes to them forming government and being in administration. So that it tries to avoid the issue of parties being captured by whoever is financing. This also promotes transparency and accountability so that at the end of the day people are able to relate with the party on the basis of who funds it and other issues.”

Ziba, however, said if law enforcement agencies were privy to particular information compelling them to investigate the PF, then they were within their right to do so.

“So unless the law enforcement agencies have other issues or information which we might not be privy to which is compelling them to investigate the opposition Patriotic Front, then that is within their right. This can be considering that it could be funding linked to, probably against the law, such as terrorist financing and so forth. Then in that manner, the law enforcement agencies are empowered to investigate that. However, we still put it categorically that Zambia has no legal framework that compels political parties to reveal or disclose their sources of funding. However, if they are interrogating individuals it means they are being summoned in their individual capacity as opposed to the position they hold. So meaning the investigations are not linked to the party but linked to their individual activities,” she said.

“So in that manner then it ceases to be a party issue but it is more of an individual issue. If someone is summoned before the law enforcement agency, the prudent thing is to avail themselves but as long as you are clean there is nothing to worry about. If you could demonstrate how you made your money through your businesses I think it is something that the individuals of the former ruling party should not be worried about. If their businesses and how they made their money is genuine and clean I do not see how that should affect them. It is just a matter of telling them whatever information is needed from them.”

And Ziba questioned the competence of investigative wings, saying they seemed to be working because there was a change of government.

“They can feel victimised and intimidated in the sense that the question is where were these law enforcement agencies before to summon these people if they noted irregularities in their individual activities? Probably that is the concern. And that is why it looks like it is more politically motivated. The mandate of the agencies does not change regardless of who is in power and which party they belong to but their mandate should be to protect the interest and national security of the country. Therefore if they will be seemingly working whenever there is a change of government then that itself speaks to other issues. It also speaks that it could be issues to do with incompetence of the people in those agencies, meaning they do not fully understand their mandate or they are not fully able to execute their mandates,” said Ziba.